South Saga · KashimaNo.514★★Open in map →
Hizen Hamashuku Sakagura-dori
— Kashima's preserved sake-brewing street
A pair of national preservation districts on opposite banks of the Hamagawa in Kashima, southern Saga. One bank is a white-plastered brewing street where sake is still made. The other is a thatched quarter of fishermen and blacksmiths.
- FromHakata Station
- Express + one stopJR express, then a local train
- Get off atHizen-Hama Station (JR Nagasaki Line)
- On foot
- Hizen Hamashuku Sakagura-dori
The sweet spot
This is not a hidden place. It is a nationally designated preservation district with signboards and its own information point. It stays uncrowded because Saga is the stretch most travellers cross between Fukuoka and Nagasaki, and because no scheduled limited express stops at Hizen-Hama. You come here on purpose.
Where it is
14 more notes in Saga · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- Tsugibathe old relay-post building on the brewing street, now the district's information point
- Sakagura-dorithe white-walled main axis, with Fukuchiyo, Mitsutake and Minematsu working along it
- Former Norita Residencea thatched house in the local kudo-zukuri style, its roof bent around a courtyard
- Hamabashi bridgethe short crossing of the Hamagawa that divides the brewing town from the fishing quarter
- Hama-Shozumachi Hama-Kanayamachithatched and tiled townhouses on the right bank, still lived in by fishing families
How to actually get there
- Hakata Station → Hizen-Kashima Station (JR Nagasaki Line limited express).
- Hizen-Kashima Station → Hizen-Hama Station (local train, one stop).
- Hizen-Hama Station → Sakagura-dori (walk south from the west side of the station).
- Sakagura-dori → Hama-Shozumachi Hama-Kanayamachi (cross the Hamabashi bridge over the Hamagawa).
- JR Nagasaki Line, changing at Hizen-Kashima
- From Hakata, take a JR limited express down the Nagasaki Line to Hizen-Kashima, then a local train one stop further to Hizen-Hama. The change cannot be skipped: scheduled express services end at Hizen-Kashima and do not call at Hizen-Hama. The preserved streets begin a short walk south of the station.
- Return north from Hizen-Hama
- Local trains run back to Hizen-Kashima, where the limited express to Hakata calls. Services on this stretch are thin compared with the main line, so read the departure board before you settle into a brewery. If you miss a connection, Hizen-Kashima is also the town's bus and taxi hub.
About the place
Hizen Hamashuku grew as a relay town on the Tara Kaido, the road running south along Ariake Bay. From the middle of the Edo period brewing took over the left bank of the Hamagawa, and the street filled with fireproof igura-zukuri townhouses and earth-walled storehouses. That side is now the Hama-Nakamachi Hachihongishuku district, 6.7 hectares of it, and its main axis is known locally as Sakagura-dori, the sake brewery street. Fukuchiyo, Mitsutake and Minematsu are still brewing along it. Across the water sits a second, smaller district of 2.0 hectares, Hama-Shozumachi Hama-Kanayamachi, where boat crews, blacksmiths and carpenters lived under thatch.
How to enjoy it
A daytime visit is the one that lets you taste and buy, because the breweries keep shop hours; the streets themselves are public and never shut. Walk the brewing street first, then cross Hamabashi for the thatched quarter — the two halves only read as one town when you have seen both. In spring the whole district opens up for Sake Brewery Tourism.
Background & history
The Tara Kaido strung together the domain towns along Ariake Bay, and Hama served as one of its relay stops. Kashima domain also worked the right bank of the river as a port, which pulled boat crews and craftsmen into a settlement with a character of its own. On the left bank brewing took hold instead, and the trade paid for plaster, tile and deep storehouses. The two quarters were selected together as Important Preservation Districts for Groups of Traditional Buildings in 2006, one classed as a brewing town, the other as a port and rural town.
Before you go
- Cash
- Walking both districts costs nothing. The breweries are working shops as well as workplaces, and the information point sells local goods, so carry some cash — Hizen-Hama itself is an unstaffed station.
- Before you go
- The streets are open at any hour, but the breweries and the information point keep daytime shop hours and each closes on its own days. The right bank is a residential fishing quarter with people living behind the thatch, so stay on the public lanes.
- Another way
- Yutoku Bus serves Kashima from in front of Hizen-Kashima Station and stops at Hama-Ekimae for the preserved districts, which helps when local trains are spaced out. By car, leave the Nagasaki Expressway at Takeo-Kitagata and follow routes 34 and 498 toward Kashima.
- After you get off
- Leave Hizen-Hama Station on the west side, where the wooden station building stands, and walk south. The white-walled brewing street begins a few blocks down, and signs from there point on to the river and the thatched quarter on the far bank.